Tam frowned and looked at the map again. “Huh. Well, this map’s got another little town marked there.”
“What’s it called?” Wally asked, peering closer.
“Agloe,” she read. “A-G-L-O-E.”
Daniel, who was now leaning over all of us to see as well, snorted and then returned to the grill to flip a steak. “Strange name. But it’s got to be an error. None of us saw anything, and it’d be kind of hard to miss a whole town out here in the middle of nowhere.”
“It’s a phantom settlement, probably,” Eve offered. “It was a big thing when they were still doing surveys by hand.”
“Should have hid it better,” I said.
“Better than out here, in all this countryside? It was probably even less populated than it is now.”
Romi shrugged. “We found it, didn’t we?”
“I don’t even know if the map’s worth the one dollar the shopkeeper charged you,” Bear laughed.
“Hey, it’s still not totally worthless,” Tam protested. “We could still use it as kindling. We’re making a fire in the pit tonight, right?”
In response, Daniel grinned at her like he did when he was about to surprise one of us with something. Beside Tam at the table, I could see a smile starting to creep over Eve’s face as well as she tried to play it cool—they were in on something together they’d planned at the grocery store. Then Daniel reached into the paper grocery bag on the bench next to the grill and pulled out a bag of marshmallows, a box of graham crackers, and a few bars of chocolate. “You bet we are,” he said. “A fire and s’mores!”
“I knew I married you for a reason!” Tam crowed, and jumped on his back and kissed his face until they were silly dancing around the deck, ignoring Wally’s protests not to bump the table with all the wine on it while the map was still spread out there. I laughed, and so did the rest of us. In the ruckus, Romi put her arms around me and squeezed me, too. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Eve blush sheepishly and then busy herself with tending to you, boosting you onto the bench so you could join in the fun.
I slept fitfully, and the next morning got up much earlier than usual. Romi and I had lived in our own apartment off campus for years, just like Daniel and Tam, and hadn’t shared with roommates since undergrad. I wasn’t used to the new house, I told myself. To having everyone else so close by, only a door away. Some of those doors closer than others.
Romi, however, was still fast asleep, tangled up in the blankets. I crept out of bed as quietly as possible and eased myself down the creaky wooden stairs to get started on making a pot of coffee. The house was dead silent, except for the faint whistle of the breeze through the trees outside, but the sunlight streaming in everywhere was beautiful. In the bright morning, the house didn’t seem quite as gigantic and ridiculous as it had the night before, although it was still far too large for our needs. I padded slowly around the living room, enjoying the view of the woods through each window.
“Do you know how to work this?” a voice asked softly, and I jumped.
But it was not Eve.
“Tam,” I breathed. “You scared me.”
“Sorry,” she whispered. She was in the kitchen, already dressed in jeans and one of Daniel’s big T-shirts, holding a metal shape. “I’ve never seen a coffee maker like this.”
“It’s a pour-over,” I said, coming over and taking it from her. “I used to have one.”
“Oh good, are we making coffee?” another tired voice asked, and the stairs creaked again as Wally appeared at the foot of them, trying to work his head through the neck hole of a Henley shirt.
“Not yet,” I said from the pantry, and they both looked at me, dismayed. “There aren’t any coffee grounds.”